The Golden Griffin (Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

nothing. I don’t want to alarm you.”
    “I’m not a child, Markal. If you’ve got information, give it to me.”
    “The truth is, I don’t know yet, but it isn’t a good sign. For now I’d rather not speculate.”
    “Speculating is what you do best.”
    “Yes, and it gets me into trouble. I’ll investigate. If I turn up something, I promise I’ll share. Meanwhile, there’s danger on the Old Road. The Knights Temperate are riding to clear it of bandits, and they’re unprepared for what they’re going to find. That’s why Narud and I were traveling. And why I’m so happy to see you here.”
    “Is Darik in trouble?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know.” Markal chewed his lower lip. “No, I think not. He’s with a company of twenty Knights Temperate. So long as he stays with the other men . . . but never mind that. Now that you’re here, you’ll save me time. Narud flew off and who knows when he’ll reappear. He’s an owl now and will likely forget his duties while he swoops around hunting voles and field mice. Who are you riding?”
    “Joffa. He’s bedded down for the night.”
    “But once he’s rested, can he carry two?”
    “Of course.” Daria had nearly forgotten the purpose that had brought her so far north, to investigate the fighting dragons. “Let’s find Darik. If he’s in trouble, we can help.”
    #
    Daria and her griffin slept in the upper branches while Markal made a bed of pine boughs in a thick branch below, maybe ten feet off the ground. It was warm beneath Joffa’s wing, and she nestled into the comfort of fur and feathers.
    She woke a few hours later to a strange blue light. She looked down to see something glowing within Markal’s robes. His eyes were closed and he muttered softly, speaking first to someone named Memnet, then arguing with another wizard. Markal said something about a dragon made of mud and sticks. The bone gurgolet.
    The light faded and Markal quieted. He’d never awakened, so far as she could tell. After a few minutes, the rumble from Joffa’s chest soothed Daria back toward sleep. She thought of Darik, riding behind her, his arms tight around her waist. He would be breathing hard, thrilled by the flight. She couldn’t wait to see him again.
    Remember. Flatlanders don’t simply blurt their feelings. When you see him it’s better to say nothing at all than say something foolish.
     
     

Chapter Three
    Darik gave up the chase when his horse began to stumble and the magic trail grew difficult to follow in the darkness. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t overtaken the thief and his brother by now. They must have known he was following, must have even changed horses.
    He found an abandoned barn on the edge of a ruined farmstead and bedded down for the night. He was back on the hunt by the first hint of dawn. When the sun crept up behind the peaks of the Dragon’s Spine to his east, he’d picked up the trail again. It led across the field to a gutted crofter’s shack, and there he stopped.
    The ground was torn by horse hooves. The fence had been broken, and blood dripped from one of the split rails. The thief’s plow horse lay dead a few yards away, hacked to death with vicious blows from a sword or ax. A brown crofter’s cap lay next to it in the dirt, cleaved nearly in two. It was damp with blood. The thief had worn a hat like that.
    Darik sighed. Someone had beat him to it. In fact, it might have even been Roderick and the others. Darik had ridden in pursuit until he lay well north of where he’d left the knights the previous afternoon. Maybe something had turned them from the road and they’d chanced upon the two outlaws. That would explain why the bodies were missing. Justice administered, Roderick might have sent them back to the village as proof. Hard to explain the dead horse, though.
    Something shimmered on the edge of Darik’s vision and a scent caught his nostrils. There, to the right. The remnant of the magic he’d used when shaking the